Italian Heirloom Tomatoes

I picked up this tomato plant at Gordon’s Greenhouse this spring. I’ve spent quite a bit of time scouring the web, trying to find out what kind of tomato this is. The description on the tag just said, “Heirloom, 80 days, 1lb fruits.”

And 1-pound fruits, no doubt! I had to pull out a scale to see for sure – of all of these, the lightest was 13.35 oz, with most weighing in at 15-17 oz. The largest came in at 1 lb 5.4 oz.

The first few we picked were heart-shaped (see this picture for reference), but as days got hotter and a few inches of rain came down, the tomatoes started to get bigger and a bit more round. The plant is literally loaded with tomatoes – We’ve pulled more than a dozen off so far, and there are more than that on the vine still.

I wasn’t planning on saving seeds, but I may snag a few from a couple of these tomatoes, just in case I can’t find the variety at the greenhouse again next year. They were the first to ripen in our garden, and have a very nice pink, brandywine-type center. Great slicing/sandwich tomatoes, terrific flavor, and you can’t beat the yield and size!

(The photo above is a picture of the vine. It’s from a few weeks ago, before any of our tomatoes started ripening. I picked all of the ones above before I thought to take a picture, but you can see the plant loaded with large green fruit.)